BBC Education Correspondent Mike Baker

Focus On School Standards

The Labour government has set out to live up to its pre-election rhetoric on education by including two Education Bills in its first legislative programme. According to the new Education Secretary, David Blunkett, the first of these - a short Class Sizes Bill - could be the first piece of legislation enacted by a Labour government for 18 years.

Blunkett explains his legislation proposals

Labour's plans are a mixture of the ambitious and the cautious: with far-reaching targets for improved school standards coupled with a "softly, softly" approach to changes in school structures.

The Class Sizes Bill, already through its Commons stages, is a short measure to phase out the Assisted Places Scheme which provides state subsidies to independent, fee-charging schools. Almost 40,000 pupils currently receive help with their fees under this scheme which is set to cost the taxpayer £140 million in the next school year.

Labour's plan is to divert funds from this scheme to local authorities which come forward with plans to reduce class sizes to a maximum of 30 for pupils aged between 5 and 7. However, as Labour has agreed to continue paying school fees to pupils who are either already on the scheme or are due to start in September, it will take seven years to achieve the full cost savings. The first tranche of money will not be released until September 1998.

The Bill does not set legal limits on class size for England and Wales - in Scotland there are already limits enshrined in legislation covering teachers' pay and conditions. Critics have noted that Labour has never set a time limit for its aim of eliminating all classes over 30.

Education and Employment Secretary David Blunkett

Mr Blunkett knows the class size promise is one he will be judged against in five years time. He has one big advantage though: demographic patterns mean there will be a reduction in the number of children aged between five and seven in the coming years.

The second measure will be a Standards Bill. It will be published in the Autumn following a White paper in June and consultation with interested parties over the summer. This will be a wide-ranging Bill. The government wishes to focus on the measures to drive up standards. These include:

• new measures to tackle under-achievement in schools, including meeting ambitious targets for numeracy and literacy;

• a "fresh start" programme for failing schools, which could be closed and then re-opened under a new name and management;

• a General Teaching Council to represent the profession;

• a mandatory qualification for head teachers.

Opt-out schools facing changes?

The Bill will also deliver promises on opted-out and grammar schools. The former will be renamed "Foundation Schools", will have to accept some local authority governors and will have their funding brought in line with other schools. Many Grant Maintained Schools are very suspicious of the effects these measures could have on their independence and their income.

There will also be a mechanism for allowing local parents to decide whether or not existing grammar schools should retain their selection admissions policy. However, Mr Blunkett has already indicated he will not automatically accept requests for such a ballot. This could bring confrontation between him and those Labour councils which are very keen to turn grammar schools into comprehensives. It's likely, however, that most of the 161 grammar schools will still be selective schools at the end of this five year Parliament.

Overall, these plans have been widely welcomed by the education profession, although there are concerns that the targets for getting three-quarters of all 11-year-olds to the expected levels in the government tests in Mathematics and English will prove too ambitious. Yet this is also seen as a radical step which, in effect, says children will be expected to master the basic "Three R's" whatever their backgrounds or difficulties.

The other big question hangs over the government's ability to resource schools well enough to achieve improved standards.

Prof Alan Smithers of Brunel University voices his concerns

There will be some shifting around of spending priorities, such as the shift from Assisted Places to tackling class sizes, but Labour will be relying heavily on the performance of the economy. The only firm promise on overall spending came in the manifesto which promised to "raise the proportion of national income spent on eduaction".

Summer Schools don't just provide teaching

However, Labour has saved around £800,000 a year by ending the grant to the quango which helped schools opt out of council control. Ministers have already earmarked £300,000 of this to pilot 'Literacy Summer Schools' for 11-year-olds this August. Around 900 youngsters will attend at 29 schools.

Standards Minister Stephen Byers explains his top priority

Other important announcements already made by the new Education Secretary include:

Earl Marshall School - one of the 18 "named and shamed"

• the creation of a Standards Task Force headed by Mr Blunkett and including as Vice-Chairman the controversial Chief Schools Inspector, Chris Woodhead;

• consultation on speeding up the process for removing incompetent teachers from the classroom;

• the abolition of the nursery voucher scheme in England & Wales;

• the naming of 18 "failing" schools which will be offered money to employ educational consultants to help them improve more quickly.

Blunkett explains why he has named "failing" schools